(Almost) Less Than 5: Sautéed Eggplant with Miso

Many years ago, my fridge (or especially freezer) looked like a morgue. No more. Ever since I started Kitchen Wizard, my kitchen is a lot more organized and that has helped me decide what to cook much quicker, and also reduced waste significantly.

So I decided to make an easy Japanese dish that can be made with pantry items. This really is a cinch if you already have grilled or sautéed eggplants (ideally cooked in vegetable oil, not olive oil). Obviously, grilled eggplants are healthier – it uses much less oil and salt. You can also stick the whole eggplants in the toaster oven until soft. You can use a conventional oven too, yet a toaster oven heats much quicker (doesn’t require pre-heating), plus uses much less energy.

If you are vegetarian/vegan, omit the meat or chopped shiitake mushrooms as substitute.

Sautéed Eggplant with Miso

Ingredients (2-3 servings):

Ginger, sliced: about 1 ts

Green onions, chopped: about 3

Crushed chili (optional)

Japanese, Chinese or Italian Eggplants: (ideally already grilled) 5-6

This is a cinch if you have already grilled or sautéed eggplants. Cut in bite size pieces. You do not need to peel skin for this dish.

Directions:

Heat oil in a skillet. Cook sliced ginger and green onions (and chili, if you are using) on medium-high heat until fragrant. (If you don’t have cooked eggplants, add oil and sauté sliced eggplants. Add a little bit of salt to shorten the cooking time). When soft, move toward the edge of the pan.

If you have the cooked eggplants, add to the onion ginger mixture. Add ground meat and any sake residue, and cook until brown.

Add soy sauce and pinch of sugar, and mix in the miso/sake mixture. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Kitchen Wizard Leftover Make-Over Tip:

If there’s any left over, add hot water and miso and make eggplant and ground meat miso soup. Add extra green onion on top.

This is a kind of dish they serve at Izakaya as well as at home in Japan… So maybe you should have some beer or sake with this, and pretend that you are in Japan!

Hey Doug, thank you for your comment!
Yes… definitely, especially with broccoli and squash. Just experiment with whatever veggies you have. The trick is, not to use too much. Miso also goes really well with cheeses, cream, soy milk you can steam/boil/microwave these veggies really quick and mix with miso cream and bake it w/cheese, or make some miso dip for healthier snack. BTW, have you made miso flavored suiton (Japanese flour dumpling & vegetable stew) before? It’s really great in winter! Leave me a comment know if you want the recipe.

Saute various cubed veggies you’d put in miso soup, such as carrots, onion/grren onion, potatoes, pumpkin, cabbage, abura-age (<- highly recommended to add flavor to vegetarian dishes). Add dashi & water to cover. When veggies are crisp tender, using a spoon, drop dumplings made of flour, water & a bit of sesame oil to the consistency of your earlobe in boiling broth, cook till almost done, and add miso at the end, just like miso soup. (You can season w/ soy sauce for no-miso version too.)

*Make only the amount of dumplings you will be eating on that day. Leftover dumplings in soup tends to make the soup very thick.

I'm in Milwaukee now w/o JP food for a wk. This will be something I'm making in as soon as I go home in Jan!